Margaret Street not closing

A brief update to the Margaret Street closure blogged about here in April. A comment left on that post from BIAD Fine Art course director John Wigley implies it won’t go ahead quite as planned. If I may quote:

To reassure everybody and to end speculation, at present, as far as we are concerned working in the building, they are not going to sell the Margaret Street site. Certainly it has been a marketing and publicity blunder of spectacular proportions, seemingly unaware of how strong the voice would be in protest, and how much the building is valued as a purpose built centre of creative practice. It would seem, however, that sense has prevailed.

Thank the Gods for that! Getting rid of Marg St would have been one of those decisions that looked great on a balance sheet but lousy everywhere else. Also of course, for a university that has renamed itself to reassert the “Birminghamness” in it’s identity it would have been rather odd to close one of it’s most central Birmingham facilities!